How-To: Alcohol Stove

How-To: Make an Alcohol Stove

A simple yet powerful spirit (alcohol) stove

Mini-Trangia on the beach

3 alcohol stove models, two of which are made of beverage cans, the Trangia in the middle, and the last one to "bloom"

If you have got here, you might have seen any of my kits for cooking coffee in the wilderness, either been with me in real life, or have seen my "Anything Coffee" webpage.

My first spirit stove was a Trangia (Trangia Stormkök, made in Sweden), which is a nicely crafted kit - a stove, and a combination a pan and one or more pots; some include a windshield and more accessories.

I would never guess (until I actually did guess) that there are better options for this stove, since I was fairly satisfied with this stove that allows the usage of a flame tamer and a seal.

It takes many seconds and quite a bit of heat for this stove to flair, or bloom - when the flames start to develop from the tiny holes around the main opening in the stove, where the spirit can be lit.

So the Trangia is not the best stove out there, although practical (it can be sealed with the spirit inside for the next use, and the flame can be regulated).

So I started looking on the internet for an alternative for the Trangia, and found a few.

Many are very elaborate and require some very nice tools, some power tools too, a drill and measuring. Quite an overkill, if you ask my humble opinion, but if you wish to go pedantic - please do.

1. Use a can opener or a knife, or scissors, to open the top of the can.

The one I describe here is neat, simple and can be produced with very little effort.

A word of caution:

Having worked with sharp metal in my life, I know a couple of dos and don'ts, but it cost me a few mishappenings, sometimes the need for bandage - these metal sheets are sharp and won't feel the difference whether you cut a finger or lose blood, so don't count on me, Mother Nature, or your own mother, for keeping safety - it is on you.

The necessary tools can be chosen upon availability

a can opener (or a knife)
a pair of scissors (or a knife)
perhaps a cutter, a plier, or scissors.

Either way, when you see what the steps are, you can suit yourself regarding what tools are at hand, your skill level and what you can leverage.

The material: one aluminum beverage can (soda, beer, etc).

3. cut the can with whatever you have in hand. If it is a less than pretty cut, you can always cut an additional, small slice that aesthetically looks nicer (it doesn’t matter).

Wooops... perfect

2. aim to about half of the can in height ("eyeballing" it will suffice), and take one more centimeter or so downwards, so the lower side of the can body will be 1 centimeter shorter than the upper side.

5. The spacing between the bends depend on the can but I use the common can and for nice spacing, allow 12-14 mm between each bend.

4. take the upper side of the can and bend the aluminum sheet sharply so you wind up with small bends which stretch from the opening (where you cut the can in two parts) until about 5 millimeter or so from the bending of the can toward the top.

6. put the top (evenly and beautifully cut, or not so much), previously bended upper side of the can carefully into the lower side of the can.

7. poke 2 holes in the surface between the last mentioned bending and the plunge of the can. These holes allow air to come into the can when the pot is on the stove (when the pot is standing right on top of the stove. Otherwise, the fire might become extinguished due to the vacuum.

The stove is ready.

That's how it looked like on a beach, somewhere on earth... Again, don't place it on the grass.

Sorry for the shady photo.

This spirit stove will bloom very quickly (a couple of seconds) and burns very powerfully. If/when you can extinguish the fire (by suffocating the fire, with a bigger can, a box or similar), you can pour back the spirit into the bottle until next use. I prefer using the amount that is required to boil my water,

It is recommended to use a windshield for this stove and all others because it saves a lot of fuel.

The first time you light it, it will burn what is left from the beverage, but filling just over the bottom (about 1 cm from the absolute bottom) will give you enough burning time for 300-400 ml of boiling coffee, IF a windshield is used (it makes a big difference).

The bottom underneath the stove and the burning may become very hot (aluminum has a good heat distribution) so make sure you put the stove on something that will not be damaged from the heat or start burning.

The nicely crafted Trangia stove is still at home, but I only use my own beverage can stoves, since these are much more efficient.

I use a pair of additional beverage cans to make a windshield, by cutting the main sheet of the cans and another cut in the middle of each sheet, so they can be combined together, to enclose the stove and the pot.

These sheets can be then rolled together, to be able to pack them neatly with the rest of the kit.

How did it go?

Any improvements to this model?

Write me! I am always on the look for the extra little nuggets.

Kaizen.